Month: September 2014

ISIS: Could It Be Death From Within?

Inkwell Institute

Middle East Desk

This post is a moot point…..the US led coalition has started its assault on ISIS in Syria with airstrikes…….so the suggestions in this piece are not going to be taken seriously….but I feel that this is still a viable solution that will cost much fewer lives…….I apologize not posting it sooner but as usual events got the better of me.

Everybody concerned is scrambling around looking for the perfect solution for defeating the rise and expansion of the terrorists group known as ISIS….the US is dashing around trying to put together a coalition that will give some sort of credibility to our involvement in Iraq and the Middle East ……again.

Could the answer be as simple as death from within?

An interesting concept or thought……ISIS destroying itself……..the idea came from something I read the other day……..

It’s tempting to go after ISIS with military might, but that strategy will eventually backfire, writes Chelsea Manning from her prison cell at Fort Leavenworth. Based on her stint as an analyst in Iraq, Manning says that using “bombs and bullets,” is exactly what the group wants. Not only will it help recruitment, it will let ISIS justify its brutality by pointing to the big bad West, writes Manning in the Guardian. So what to do instead? Among other things, the world should set up temporary borders and let ISIS try to do what it says it can—govern a state.

“In a contained area and over a long enough period,” it’s doomed to fail. “This might begin to discredit the leadership and ideology of ISIS for good.” Smart containment and an international moratorium on ransoms to cut off the group’s money supply will help, but having the discipline to let ISIS unravel on its own is key. The militants are “wielding a sharp, heavy and very deadly double-edged sword,” writes Manning. “Now just wait for them to fall on it.” Click for the full column.

Manning has a point.  The coalition could have contained ISIS within a defined area and allowed it to consume itself.

But what type of defined area are we speaking about?

Think back to 1991…..Bush1’s war…..do you remember a tactic called the “no-fly zone”?

France, Great-Britain and the United States established successively, in 1991 and 1992, two zones in Iraq from which all flights by Iraqi fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft were excluded. When they were established, these zones were patrolled by France, British and American combat planes based, for the northern zone, at the Incirlik base near Adana in Turkey, and, for the southern zone, at bases in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The first zone was situated north of latitude 36° N. It was established on 7 April 1991, six weeks after the end of the first « Gulf War ». It covered notably the city of Mossoul.

The second air exclusion zone was established south of latitude 32° N on 27 August 1992 and included the southern city of Basra. In September 1996 the United States and United Kingdom enlarged this zone up to the 33th degree of latitude while France distanced itself from this measure and never patrolled this new area.

A similar idea could be established around the areas that ISIS controls…..they could do what they will within the area but once outside the zones they would be attacked and destroyed.

Could He Be A Pessimist?

My last dog of mental calmness so I want to talk about my fave subject…..DOGS.  It is no secret that I am a dog person…….I have had their friendship all my life……my two best friends today made it possible for me to come to grips with my injuries and the toll it took……

You have to admit that dogs can have some of the greatest facial expressions ever.  But are they capable of the feeling of say pessimism?

A great question we know they can surely appear to be so……but can they really?

Certain dogs apparently feel like they’re perpetually in the doghouse, according to a University of Sydney study that says some dogs are pessimists, getting demoralized more easily than other dogs and just giving up on tasks when they’ve had enough. The research, published this week in the Plos One journal, isn’t saying that pessimistic dogs are necessarily sad: It’s just that they’re more risk-averse because they expect the worst after experiencing setbacks and are more likely than their more “optimistic” canine counterparts to just accept the way things are rather than try to change them.

The 40 dogs in the study had to touch a target upon hearing two tones two octaves apart; one tone would reward them with milk, the other with water, the Washington Post reports. It’s when the researchers sandwiched “ambiguous” tones in between the two main ones that some dogs’ moods started going south: Certain dogs kept hitting the targets no matter what reward resulted, while “pessimistic” dogs stopped touching the target altogether after not receiving the coveted milk. The Post notes that perhaps the dogs aren’t pessimists at all, but realists—one University of Colorado professor says he’s curious if they’re actually pessimistic or just got tired of waiting. But the results could have useful training applications: Dogs that take risks could be used for tasks that require more persistence, such as searching for explosives, while wary pups could serve as more careful guide dogs.

Dogs rule!

The Saga Of The 3 Breasted Martian

My two days of stuff that has little to do with war and death………Did you see the movie with Arnold called “Total Recall”?  If so, do you remember the Martian hooker with 3 boobs?  Well, there is a real life story somewhere in there………

There are people who have plastic surgery to correct birth defects, those who go under the knife to look more like their favorite celebrities, and then there’s a Florida woman who goes by the name Jasmine Tridevil. The 21-year-old massage therapist—who’s now being compared to the three-breasted woman in both Total Recall films—says she has added a third breast after a long search to find a surgeon who would actually perform the procedure, 9 News reports. (Skeptics, however, are pretty sure it’s a hoax.) Tridevil’s stated motivation: She’s hoping to land a reality show on MTV, as well as keep men at bay because she “[doesn’t] want to date anymore” and figures they’ll think the third breast is “weird and gross.”

The new breast was created with her own abdomen skin and a silicone implant placed between her two existing breasts, she says, adding that the areola was tattooed on. She tells Real Radio 104.1 via the Huffington Post UK that she contacted 50 doctors before one agreed to her request, saying no one wanted to “[break] the code of ethics” and that the doctor who finally gave in “made me sign a nondisclosure agreement as he was scared he’d get in trouble.” Tridevil says her family doesn’t approve, telling 9 News, “My mum ran out the door. She won’t talk to me. She won’t let my sister talk to me. My dad … he really isn’t happy. He is kind of ashamed of me, but he accepted it.” That’s not stopping her from going after her dream, posting pics on her Facebook page and trying to draw MTV’s gaze her way with tweets hashtagged #3Boobs #MTV

After days of mockery and jokes….the rest of the story came out…….

It was fun, or at least weird, while it lasted, but urban legends website Snopes is calling Jasmine Tridevil’s story about adding a third breast a hoax. And while Tridevil, aka Alisha Hessler, isn’t ‘fessing up, Florida’s WTSP has dug up an especially telling stolen-item report involving Hessler earlier this month at Tampa International Airport. After her bag was stolen and then recovered, airport police listed its contents as including a “3 breast prosthesis.” Hessler might be acknowledging the ruse at least subtly. She’s a massage therapist, and Snopes has found her website for “Alisha’s Golden Touch” that refers to her as a “provider of internet hoaxes since 2014” and a “specialist in massage for three breasted women.”

In an interview with the British tabloid the Sun posted today, Hessler was still sticking by her story. “This is not a fake,” she says. “I had the procedure done. If people don’t believe it, that’s up to them.” Snopes says it has reached out to Hessler, who is hoping to land a reality TV show, to clear up its questions. It speaks to one plastic surgeon who says this would have been a lengthy, hugely complicated procedure. So unless some actual third-party proof emerges, and perhaps the identity of the alleged plastic surgeon, she gets the site’s “False” label. In an earlier interview with WTSP, Hessler explained that she wouldn’t allow a close look at the extra breast because “it’s in episode six of my show.”

What’s life without whimsy?

ISIS Coalition Situation Report (SITREP) #6

The big news is that the US has put together a less than functioning coalition of about 50 partners and NO one is sure what their contributions will be, other than the 5 Arab nations that have participated in the airstrikes beginning this week.

There has been developments that are starting to shine a light on the dysfunctions of this coalition…….

Item 1–Iraqi PM has issued a terrorist warning…….

While speaking to reporters at the UN today, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Ibadi made some news that seemed to catch everybody off guard: He said he had “credible” evidence that ISIS was planning subway attacks in the US and Paris, reports Reuters. US security officials quoted on and off the record by Reuters, NBC News, the AP, and others said it was the first they were hearing about it and generally downplayed the remarks. One senior intelligence official called it “total bunk.”

This sounds more like the PM is trying to deflect all the criticism of the army for not fighting like they were trained to do……the army has had too many mistakes for the world to have confidence in their abilities.

Item 2–There is a critique of the airstrikes in Syria from the rebels……..

Rebels factions have been complaining about the US attacking their “allies” in al-Qaeda, and today warned that the US strikes against ISIS aren’t really helping them in any way either.

The US war also found considerable complaints from Syrian women activists, who warned the US attacks were counterproductive, killing civilians and radicalizing the population.

This site has been saying that there may have been a better way to handle ISIS…..but the common goal was to bomb them into the Middle Ages…….

Item 3–A ‘moderate’ rebel group has shut down ops and for the usual reasons……

Two years after the Obama administration granted it a rare license to raise money for Syrian rebels, a Washington-based opposition nonprofit group that tried to help the United States build a moderate fighting force is defunct.

Former organizers of the Syrian Support Group say the Obama administration shares the blame for the collapse of their campaign, and for the broader challenge of finding allies among fighters who’ve spent years seeking U.S. military help in their struggle against Bashar Assad’s government only to be asked, now, to serve as foot soldiers against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The lesson from the Syrian Support Group’s experience, the organizers said, is that half-measures just won’t cut it in such an enormous undertaking.

Item 4–Quietly the US is sending more troops to Iraq……….

About 500 troops from the U.S. Army‘s 1st Infantry Division in Fort Riley, Kansas, will head to Iraq and other countries in the Middle East next month to help coordinate the campaign against the Islamic State, the Pentagon said Thursday.

More than 200 hundred of the soldiers will be based in Iraq at U.S. Joint Operations Centers (JOCs) in Baghdad and the Kurdish capital of Irbil, and the rest of the contingent will operate out of U.S. bases in the region under the U.S. Central Command, Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said at a Pentagon briefing.

The initial plan was to have 138 of the troops at the operations center in Baghdad, 68 at the operations center in Irbil and 10 at the Iraqi Defense Ministry, Kirby said. The 200-plus troops will be part of the 475-troop contingent President Barack Obama authorized last month to serve in Iraq as advisers to the Iraqi National Security forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

The amount of US Troops silently creeps up and up……is this the plan all along?

Item 5–Back in the early days of 2003 the world was asking if there was a reason that the US was attacking Muslim countries…..and their answer was that the US was not at war with Islam……..unfortunately the facts say something different……..

That means that Syria becomes the 7th predominantly Muslim country bombed by 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama—after Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Iraq.

The utter lack of interest in what possible legal authority Obama has to bomb Syria is telling indeed: Empires bomb who they want, when they want, for whatever reason (indeed, recall that Obama bombed Libya even afterCongress explicitly voted against authorization to use force, and very few people seemed to mind that abject act of lawlessness; constitutional constraints are not for warriors and emperors).

All this bombing makes for good propaganda…….and sends chills up the spines of countries that disagree with our policies…….

Item 6–The moist important info to come out of DC is that these airstrikes may not be doing the best job…..why?

……..the Pentagon has warned that the airstrikes in Syria are going to end up the exact same way, with ISIS expected to quickly change tactics and adapt, making it more difficult to pick out targets.

What damage the strikes have done, Pentagon officials say ISIS will easily rebound from, and picking future targets will require “competent partners” on the ground to spot.

Not the best news to describe the effects of our airstrikes.

This concludes the briefing….the news out of the Middle East is coming faster than I can type but i will try to keep you abreast of the changes and the news……

Thanx for your time and attention…….

Turn the page.

Welcome To Barack Obama’s Syrian Gong Show | David Stockman’s Contra Corner

I remember back in the 70’s my fave TV was the Gong Show……for those that were not born yet….it was a collection of good and really bad acts that compete for the prize…..excellent entertainment…Chuck Barris……

I am one of those people that thinks this new war will become a massive cluster f*ck and in the end costing American lives…

And I am not alone……

 

Welcome To Barack Obama’s Syrian Gong Show | David Stockman’s Contra Corner.

The Little War That Could–Part 2

While the world was debating the benefits of war……China is creeping!

Kashmir has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan for years, even decades, to the point that they have fought several short lived wars over the region…….and more recently there has been a stand off between the two countries over possession of the region…….it is always a crucial conflict that the world needs to intervene since both countries have nuke weapon capability…….

But recently a new twist has been added to the conflict…..that twist is…….wait for it……… China.

Hundreds of Indian and Chinese troops have dug into positions on a high Himalayan plateau, leading India’s army chief to cancel a foreign trip and monitor a standoff that underscores deep differences between the Asian giants as they seek closer ties.

Military officials in New Delhi and Kashmir said on Tuesday that Chinese troops set up a camp about 3 km (2 miles) into territory claimed by India in the Chumar region of the Ladakh plateau more than a week ago.

The alleged incursion by Chinese troops into territory claimed by India dominated a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, overshadowing his pledges to invest $20 billion over five years and a bid to warm personal ties with new Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Indian government on Monday (September 22) cancelled the clearances of Chinese mediapersons coming to New Delhi for an interaction with Indian counterparts, after reports came about China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers pitching tents within the Indian territory.

India has deployed about 1,500 troops in the Chumar area and there are about 800 Chinese soldiers, an Indian government official said. The two sides are not in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation and are well separated from each other.
Small incursions are common across the Line of Actual Control between the nations, the de facto border that runs some 4,000 km (2,500 miles) across the Himalayas, but it is rare for either country to set up camp deep within disputed territory.

 

A situation that needs to be watched…….there are three (3) nuclear armed countries vying for control of a region……all it would take is one rogue general to start World War Three….is that important enough for you skeptics?

 

Can You Believe The Stupidity?

Those mindless twats at FOX News have done and said some moronic stuff…..but this piece is disgusting and pathetic…..but I have come to expect that from them…….

They have been all over the fact that a woman pilot from UAE was part of th4e airstrikes on SIS positions……

Anyone that puts any credence in anything they have to say on FOX is far beyond STUPID……approaching brain dead…….

 

 

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ISIS: I Am So Bummed!

I am so bummed!  I made a note last night and thought I might have a couple days before there was an answer…..I was slow on the draw and now I am bummed.

Every admin spokesperson that has been trotted out to meet the press has been asked the same question…..who will the troops on the ground be?

So far every person has tapped danced around that question…..most giving vague answer….not one would fess up and admit that they have NO idea which country will step up to the challenge.

My question to myself was…..what will be the newest story to get everyone’s mind off the troop question?

And now I have my answer…….AG Eric Holder is resigning….

Now the media will fixate on this story for a couple of days….Twitter will go ape shit…….and the unanswered question will go away….at least for awhile.

I mean the Iraqi PM has given us a story that there is a plan to attack the subway system in Paris and New York…….a story that comes a little to convenient for me.  And yet that story was not the big breaking story this afternoon……the media is worried more about who will be the replacement for Holder than the possibility of deaths on our subways………damn all this is getting just too predictable………

I am bummed!  I should have been quicker on the uptake…..but it feels good to be able to foresee what will happen.

ISIS: How Effective Are The Airstrikes?

Everyday someone from the Admin goes on the tube and tells the American people and the world just how well the action against ISIS is going……..according to them our airstrikes are having an effect……that they are a success…..beyond imagination (well that may be putting words in their mouths but seems like that is what they are trying to say)……..

First the airstrikes, so far we have conducted about 500 airstrikes, probably more…..we have hit command and control, oil fields, vehicles, barracks and militants……..after so much ordnance aimed at the bad guys and all the chest thumping by the Iraqi government that all is well and on track….I have a question.

How do they measure effective?

ISIS has captured more villages on the border with Turkey………and in Iraq, ISIS was overrun one Iraqi base camp killing many and wounding even more….and now under the massive airstrikes, ISIS has surrounded another Iraqi position………

Despite the addition of US airstrikes complicating their operations, ISIS continues to have the advantage on the ground in Iraq, and for the second time in less than a week has cornered a large camp full of Iraqi soldiers.

200 soldiers are believed to be in the Albu Etha camp, and they report that they have begun to run low on food and ammunition. Despite Iraq’s claims of progress against ISIS since the US strikes began, the losses seem to be mounting.

The Iraqi army is having one setback after another and we are told that they are getting control of the ground portion of this conflict.

This brings up another question.

If the Iraqi army is impotent against ISIS, who will be the ground forces that will do all this ISIS killing on the ground?  The Iraqi army has been training to defend their country for 10+ years and yet they are still not ready to do so.

We could always fall back on the Kurds and Peshmerga……..the problem there is without massive air power they would be sucking the sand they live on……so I ask again……who are these ground forces that will successfully eliminate ISIS?

Does anyone have a good answer to these question?

Turn the page!